Page 111 of Fracture

“We need a meeting.”

“A meeting? I didn’t know you were in AA.”

She shook her head. “Not that kind. A Curvy Vigilantes meeting.” Lorelei tapped her screen and listened to the phone ring. “I remembered where I was held. Vinnie knows the place. We need to meet. Now.”

“I’ll call everyone,” Frannie replied. “Get here as soon as you can. Bring Vinnie.”

“We’ll be there soon.” Lorelei hung up the phone and looked up at a confused Vinnie. “We need to go to Frannie’s shelter. They’ve been running a secret investigation team to find out what the hell is going on. We need to tell everyone about this and put an end to this for good.”

“Let’s go.”

Vinnie put his hand on Lorelei’s as they waited for everyone to arrive at Shelter in the Storm. Anxiety radiated off her, flooding him as well and making the entire room tense.

Marcus and Pryce were the last to arrive, with an anxious Edie staring at the door until they walked in. When they did, all eyes turned to Lorelei.

“Since the park, I’ve been having a dream about where I was kept. I didn’t think it was a real place, but Vinnie thinks he knows where it is,” Lorelei said.

“Oh, my God,” Edie breathed.

Pryce wrapped his arm around her and kissed the side of her head.

Vinnie hoped like hell this was the end. That women like Edie who were held captive and people who loved her would finally get the closure they needed. They deserved.

“Where is it?” Marcus asked.

“There’s an old mansion out on the edge of town. We’ve never been able to get close. It’s owned by a corporation, from what I know. I went there once, years ago, on patrol. A neighbor reported hearing gunshots.”

“What did you find?” Marcus asked.

Vinnie shook his head. “Nothing. We weren’t allowed on the property. As soon as we turned onto the driveway, we were stopped by private security. They said the shots were target practice. That the property is a hundred acres and they have always been able to host private functions that included target practice.”

“And you didn’t question it?” Mackenzie asked.

“We did. Absolutely. But the corporation is private, and they had an answer for what happened. Showed us a live feed of their security system with a group firing at targets set up behind the house,” Vinnie explained. “It matched up with the neighbor’s report.”

“So, you left?” Edie asked.

“We had to. They refused to give us access to the property, and without the owner’s approval, we had no right to be there. The neighbor heard gunshots, and the owners provided an explanation.”

“They’re allowed to fire guns on their property?” Stacey asked.

“As long as they are five-hundred feet from any dwelling, then yes,” Marcus said.

“Were they?” Stacey asked Vinnie.

Vinnie nodded. “The property was massive. A hundred acres is more than enough for them to legally fire guns.”

“They had documentation ready to show you?” Edie asked.

Vinnie nodded. “Said it happened a lot. Neighbors called it in all the time. Nothing we could do, and I didn’t think much of it. Until Lorelei described the house. We could see it from the driveway. It was built close to the road, relatively speaking. Couldn’t see anything else, but I saw the house. Just like she described.”

“Could you find your way back there?” Marcus asked.

Vinnie nodded again. “Yeah. But it’s not like we can go knock on the door. It’s a fortress. Cameras and fences all over, armed security. And if it’s where she was, that’s not all.”

“What do you mean?” Pryce asked.

“There were guards all over the inside, too,” Lorelei said. “At every door, in every hallway. Not an inch of that place is unprotected.”